Wine lovers from all over the world know the Douro Valley. Often, now they also know the Alentejo. But there is much more in Portugal, starting with the largest region of the country, one of the most beautiful and also the most unknown.
All over the world, other people think they know vinho verde (literally “green wine”, in English, as very young, and an express style: reasonable and cheerful, sweet, new and sparkling). But the first thing that Vinho Verde The Winemaking Commission needs other people to know that there is much more to it than that: they will tell you about it at their guest center in Porto. It is not a style; It is a region, the extreme northwest of the country, that appears to be bright green, thanks to its relatively mild climate and above-average rainfall.
Like almost all of Portugal, it is a place with a long winemaking tradition, dating back some 2,000 years (and it is a demarcated region with DOC since 1908). Today, the maximum houses still have vines planted on their front or back. backyard for your non-public wine production, or to grow grapes to sell to your neighbors or the local wine cooperative. According to one statistic, the region has 16,000 hectares (about 40,000 acres) and 16,000 viticulturists. Vines are woven into life.
In some of the nine subregions, these vines have a very specific visual profile. They are trellis about two meters high, which free the soil for vegetables and other crops.
In recent years, artistic winemakers have settled, as a result of their successes, in the better known Douro Valley. Meanwhile, established players, rarely guided by a new generation fresh out of agronomy school, are experimenting with new, more sublime, more gastronomic and structured wines. They dropped it with added sugar and carbon dioxide (to mimic the moment of fermentation that occurred in the bottle before fashionable winemaking know-how) and make sublime white wines that have aging potential.
In fact, many wines from the region are still very easy to drink. During a recent whirlwind tour of the region, more than one winemaker used the term “pool wine” in a tasting. One described an ever-growing “breakfast wine. “Although there are a few wineries via the tourist bus, most are small family project circles where hospitality is authentic, the house cuisine is delicious, and excursions and tastings are informative and appealing to beginners and wine professionals alike.
Lately investors have run to advertise wine tourism routes, which cross 28 wineries. Here are some of the stars.
Quinta de Lixa
For now, this is the most productive position to re-specialize in the Vinho Verde region: a position that opened in 2015 as a “hotel for delighting in wine” with 30 rooms and now has 46 rooms, some with their own pools or private wineries. The rooms are dimly lit and romantic, but the prospects are wide. A highlight is the large-scale art in the dining room, which consists of 366 carved leaves (one in gold leaf) by artist Paulo Neves. The vineyard of which it is a part, Quinta da Lixa, produces a smart variety of smart wines that employ the main grape types of the region. for fermentation, and ended a pairing dinner with attractive Pet Nats instead of fortified wines. You also have the rule of leaving all the glasses on the table at those dinners: a (fairly large) organization of bloodhounds was recently discovered with 166.
Soalheiro noticed from Spain
One of the best known vineyards in the region, in the most sensitive of the Spanish border in the subregion of Monção and Meglaço (look it up on the labels), Soalheiro has 19 references (!) of a single grape variety – alvarinho – and a success in wine tourism. Details are sketchy for now, however, work is underway on a nine-room hotel, and there’s already an undeniable guesthouse that sleeps six. For now, the tourism includes a mini-museum – the original production center, 40 years ago, in the winemaker’s garage – which preserves one of the chestnut barrels they used (oak difficult to find) and a bottle of the old original, from 1982. as a table for lunch – “we have to be others from a restaurant,” explains catering director Guilherme Augusto Alcantara Lobo – loaded with regional specialties such as bisaro pork, goat cheese, grilled sausages, tomato salad and onions and lentils over low heat, all from local producers.
A room at Casa da Vinha in Quinta da Ameal
Although it recently acquired through Esporão, one of Portugal’s largest wine companies, Quinta do Ameal does not seem to have lost its artisanal soul. – its “pool wine”, in the words of wine tourism manager Mariana Brandão – earned a place on Wine Enthusiast’s list of the most productive purchases. From the beginning, in 1999, they prioritized quality over quantity – a radical concept at the time – and sugar or carbonation was never added. Hotels are no less pleasant and simple to live in. The three-bedroom Casa Grande and two-bedroom Casa da Vinha are superbly decorated with locally made pieces and are a smart access point for wine. tastings, but also to walk through the 200-year-old forest or ride a bike or kayak on the Lima River.
Part of the Quinta da Raza team
Fifth-generation winemaker Diogo Teixeira Coelho continues his ancestral heritage while taking risks and experimenting with new expressions of vinho verde wines. A tasting in the new glass-walled tasting room, the vineyard invested in wine tourism when the world closed in 2020, started with several Pet Nats, leading Coelho to say that “we take the Pet Nat exercise that is going around the world,” but it’s also a nod to the classic vinho verde wines. in which a moment of fermentation occurred in the bottle. “My grandfather used to say that if there are no bubbles, the wine is dead,” he recalls. Anyway, the stall is now full of life, especially during the homemade convivial lunch that can be shared with the circle of relatives on the terrace, which can come with rice cooked with one of the chickens from the family circle farm, or sausage made with one of the pigs.
Quinta das Arcas
The vineyard of the circle of relatives is relatively giant for the region and wins awards for its wines. Like Carlos Teixeira of Quinta da Lixa, winemaker António Moneiro says his philosophy is minimal: “the most productive wines come from the most productive grapes,” and he also works to bring back “forgotten” grapes that are nearly extinct and experiment with types that thrive in other parts of the country. Even their entry-level wine is balanced with clever structure, roundness, and maturity. “Portugal has to look too much,” he said, noting that the small country competes with France, Italy and Spain.
A tasting at the Quinta de Lourosa
The owner, Joana de Castro, jokes that she started making sparkling wine on the estate of the circle of relatives (her father, Professor Rogério de Castro, is considered the grandfather of Portuguese viticulture), when she discovered that she liked champagne but couldn’t buy it all the time. time. Now, its sparkling wine is at the height of Portugal’s most productive bubbles, and its wine tourism offering takes the form of a soulful guest room of seven rooms in an old house, parts of which date back to the seventeenth century. century. Tastings still take place in the stone-walled old fumeiro, the room that was historically used to care for meats — Castro prefers hardiness to the new poolside facility.
Quinta de Santa Teresa
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